María José Arrojo is Reader at the Department of Humanities of the University of A Coruña. She has the recognition as Titular Professor in the field of Communication Sciences. She is a member of the research group that works on the philosophy and methodology of the sciences of the artificial. The leader of the research team is Professor Wenceslao J. Gonzalez.
Arrojo has published papers analyzing communication sciences from the perspective of the sciences of artificial, in general, and the design sciences, in particular. In addition, she is a member of the organizing committee of the Conferences on Contemporary Philosophy and Methodology of Science of the University of A Coruña, which are endorsed by the Society of Logic, Methodology and Philosophy of Science in Spain.
She has been working off research projects on bounded rationality and the sciences of design supported by the Spanish Ministry related to scientific research and technological innovation. Among her papers are “Towards a New Approach to Communication and Information Theory: Communication Sciences as Sciences of the Artificial,” “Communication Sciences as Sciences of the Artificial: An Analysis of the Digital Terrestrial Television,” “Complexity in Communication Sciences as Sciences of Design: The Digital Terrestrial Television and Parsimonious Factors,” and “New Epistemological and Methodological Criteria for Communication Sciences: The Conception as Applied Sciences of Design.”
Dates of Visit: 1 August – 30 September 2016
Project Title: The Manifold Aspects of Complexity in Communication Sciences: The Scientific Study of Artificial Elements in the Society.
Project Description: Complexity in communication sciences is manifold: a) it includes epistemological and ontological aspects among its components; b) it has two-sided configuration — internal and external — that can be seen in its structure and in its dynamics; and c) it is dual in its approach to communicative problems, because communication sciences are sciences of the artificial in addition to being social sciences. The axis of this investigation is the study of the internet as an excellent exemplification of the many faces of complexity in the realm of communication.
Within this philosophico-methodological framework of complexity in the communication sciences from the viewpoint of the sciences of the artificial, the research will analyze 1) the features of complexity in the new communication possibilities introduced by the platforms of the internet oriented to informative purposes (such as those around social networks like Snapchat). 2) The complexity present in the aims, processes, and results of the internet (mainly, on these informative platforms) from an endogenous and an exogenous point of view. 3) The features of complexity in the configuration of the artificial societies organized around the internet.